


A New Adventure

by artikgato



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-02-01 00:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12693399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artikgato/pseuds/artikgato
Summary: It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d been so happy to see his Partner, or like it was the first time he was realizing that his Partner was hot - no, no, attractive...handsome! Handsome. That word was safe. Oh crap, Souji was walking up to him. Did he have a stupid look on his face? Was he blushing? Was he giving himself away?





	A New Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to the [Souyo Zine](https://souyozine.tumblr.com/)! You can still order a copy!

The train ride from Inaba to Tokyo took a full five hours. That’s five hours of Yosuke sitting there, fiddling with the apps on his phone, listening to music, and trying hard to stay calm. Five hours is such a stupid amount of time - not long enough to get relaxed and stop thinking about the person that was waiting for him on the other end of the line, but still too long for Yosuke’s tastes. He wanted to be there _now_ , not in - he checked the time on his phone - fifteen minutes.

Ugh.

It gave him time to reflect on his life, though, specifically on what had gotten him to this exact moment, which was only making him more restless. He was nervous about the whole thing. Happy, of course, but still insanely nervous.

Despite him being, well, _Yosuke Hanamura_ , he’d managed to cram enough knowledge into his brain in the past year to get good enough grades that he’d managed to get into a fairly decent college in Tokyo. Not nearly as good as the one Souji was going to, of course, but it wasn’t like Yosuke was a _genius_ , just, y’know, slightly above average. But even slightly above average was better than he had ever expected to be - better than his _parents_ had expected from him, evidently, because they’d bought him this train ticket and given him the whole weekend off to go to Tokyo. He was supposed to be touring his soon-to-be college, and he would be, but first and foremost he was going to spend time with Souji.

The train tickets were 6000 yen for a round trip. Compared to the money they’d made in the TV world that was chump change, but for working at much more normal jobs it was definitely not. Souji couldn’t visit Inaba nearly as often as he wanted, both because of that fact and also because he was just always so busy. So Yosuke hadn’t seen nearly enough of his ‘Partner’ in the past year… well, in person anyway - they _did_ still have phones and webcams. But seeing Souji over a grainy video connection and seeing him in person were two totally different things. Yosuke’d really missed him, and it was no secret that Souji missed him and everyone else from Inaba.

The beep of an incoming text message distracted Yosuke from his thoughts, and he excitedly checked his phone.

> Almost time! I’m waiting at the station :)

Yosuke checked the time: ten minutes. Souji had gotten to the station ten minutes early. He could just picture his partner now, casually waiting among the crowd, one hand in a pocket and the other curled around his phone, with a small smile on his face. Was he just as excited to see Yosuke as Yosuke was to see him? Yosuke hurried to type a reply. 

>> c u thr!

He debated, for probably longer than necessary, if he wanted to add “I can’t wait!” or something along those lines, but in the end he just went with a short and simple response.

They were going to tour the college tomorrow, and look at apartments (apartments!) afterwards, but today was a different story. Today was just for them. Souji apparently had a whole day planned, and Yosuke was excited, to be sure, but he honestly didn’t care where Souji took him. Not that he didn’t appreciate the effort, the opposite actually - it was more like, Yosuke didn’t really care about the _where_ so much, just that he was spending the whole day with Souji. With _just_ Souji. He liked everyone in Inaba, of course, but he had missed the times where it was just him and Souji, lazing around in Souji’s room or killing time at the Samegawa or whatever. It hadn’t been _just_ him and Souji in a long, long time, and now he was going to get to spend a whole day with him. A whole lot more than just a day, in fact, but one thing at a time, Yosuke.

The telltale squeal of the brakes and an announcement overhead reminded Yosuke that all of this was suddenly going to start happening really soon, and he looked out the window to see the station come into view. He couldn’t suppress his grin. All too soon he was gathering up his stuff - just a backpack and his messenger bag, he didn’t need a lot really - and shuffling out of the train with a group of the other passengers. Outside the train he scanned the crowd for his partner’s signature silver hair until he heard his name from over to his right.

“Yosuke!”

And there he was. Same dorky bowl cut (that somehow still looked great on him, Yosuke hadn’t ever figured that out), same striking silver eyes, same habit of dressing in all monochrome, one hand raised in greeting, and an uncharacteristically big smile on his face, and-

Oh.

Oh nooooo.

It was ridiculous. Souji had just been to Inaba, what, four months ago? And Yosuke saw him through his webcam like three nights a week. What the hell. _What the hell_. Why was he-

Crap. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d been so happy to see his Partner, or like it was the first time he was realizing that his Partner was hot - no, no, attractive...handsome! Handsome. That word was safe. Oh crap, Souji was walking up to him. Did he have a stupid look on his face? Was he blushing? Was he giving himself away? Crap - _crap_ . He didn’t have time for - he was going to be _living_ with Souji, he _couldn’t_ be having thoughts like these - why _now_?

Apparently, Souji hadn’t noticed anything at all, because before he could make heads or tails of the situation, Souji was hugging him. _Hugging him_ . Oh no - he smelled nice, what the _hell_ , and even though it was summer the hug was warm but not in a bad way? And his arms around Yosuke’s torso felt good, what the hell, this is for girls, _this is for girls_.

Apparently Souji finally noticed something was wrong, because when he pulled back he had a concerned look on his face.

“Yosuke?” he asked. Yosuke tried to swallow down the sudden butterflies - nerves! Definitely not butterflies in his stomach, nope, it was just nerves. He tried to say something, but Souji was still really close, and even concerned he looked good, and his lips looked really soft - wait, no!

He was blushing, he was sure of it. His entire face was hot. What...what the _hell_ -

“I’m gonna ruin everything,” he groaned, bringing his hands up to cover his bright red face.

“Yosuke?” Souji asked, now alarmed. When he didn’t respond, he felt Souji grab one of his elbows, and just let himself be led through the sea of people and over to a bench. He sat down, face still in his hands, and Souji sat down next to him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and one of his hands was on Yosuke’s back, rubbing comforting circles between his shoulderblades, and all Yosuke could think was “ _good with his hands_ ”. Ugh, his brain was a traitor. He needed to get a grip, he couldn’t be having thoughts like these! They were looking at apartments tomorrow! They’d be living together for at least three years while they were in school, _why was his brain doing this_.

“I’m...” maybe he could pass it off as train sickness? Souji might believe that. When Yosuke didn’t continue, Souji leaned closer - ugh why did he smell so good - talking at a lower volume.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked. ‘ _Stop being so hot,_ ’ Yosuke wanted to respond. Instead all he could do was shake his head and take a series of deep breaths, trying to get himself under control. Why hadn’t he had these thoughts while Souji was in Inaba? What the hell was so different _now_ ? After a few minutes of that, he felt Souji gently wrap his hands around Yosuke’s fingers and slowly start to pry them away from his face. He didn’t protest or try to resist, let Souji pull his hands away. Then he made the mistake of looking up at him, at his stupid soft-looking lips and his stupid gorgeous eyes full of concern. He heard himself make a distressed noise and wanted to just go jump off of a bridge somewhere because it sounded so _pathetic_ to him, and-

“What do you need?” Souji asked, softly, and Yosuke sighed.

“Don’t...hate me,” Yosuke finally replied. He saw Souji’s eyebrows knit, saw him start to open his mouth to ask ‘what for’, and just cut him off before he could, surging forward and tilting his head and crushing their lips together. Souji stiffened, grip tightening where he was still holding Yosuke’s hands, and Yosuke closed his eyes. ‘ _This is it_ ’, he thought, ‘ _This is when I screw up everything_.”

Except that it wasn’t. Souji made some kind of noise into the kiss, and then all of a sudden he let go of Yosuke’s hands and slid his into Yosuke’s hair and pulled him in closer and - holy _crap_ he was a good kisser. His hands in Yosuke’s hair felt so _nice_ , and the way he was moving his lips against Yosuke’s was just _sinful_ , and his lips _were_ just as soft as they looked. Souji pulled away after what felt like a while, but he could tell he was still close, because he could feel the way he was panting for breath. It took him a while, but Yosuke finally mustered up the courage to open his eyes.

The way Souji was looking at him was intense, questioning, but there was still a smile on his face, almost like he couldn’t help that it was there. Yosuke felt his own face smiling to match. He started to try to say something, though he wasn’t entirely sure what it was even going to be, but he felt himself being tugged forward by the hands that were still in his hair, and Souji’s mouth was on his again, and not talking was just fine. Not talking was _great_ , actually. Souji’s hands slipped out of his hair to cradle his cheeks as they kissed, and Yosuke just sighed into the liplock, shifting a little closer to Souji. He slipped his arms around Souji’s torso and pulled him closer. One kiss turned into two, then three, then finally they were both panting, out of breath, leaning their foreheads against each-other and staring into each-other’s eyes. Souji was looking at him with such raw adoration that Yosuke felt his face getting hot, but he couldn’t make himself look away. Not any more.

“Let’s go get some coffee,” Souji finally suggested, voice soft and pitched low, just for him. Yosuke made a noise of agreement, and after another moment or so of staring they finally leaned away from each-other. Yosuke gathered his things as they stood up, and Souji turned toward a nearby flight of stairs, motioning for Yosuke to follow him. Following some dumb impulse that Yosuke wasn’t going to examine too closely, he reached out and took one of Souji’s hands. When Souji looked back at him with a bright smile and squeezed his hand in return, Yosuke felt his heart clench. He would do anything to protect that smile. Anything.

They ended up in a corner booth of a little cafe nearby, Yosuke sitting between his two bags and Souji sitting across from him, still with that adoring look on his face. They both ordered coffee, and then there was a long pause while Yosuke worked up the courage to say something and Souji just kept smiling over at him. Finally, Souji reached across the table, cautious, and took one of Yosuke’s hands. Yosuke let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had even been holding, and finally got his brain to cooperate long enough to form a sentence.

“Y’know I...uh. It’s really obvious to me now, but I didn’t realize how I felt until I stepped off the train and saw you,” he finally admitted. Souji chuckled.

“How very like you,” he replied, and Yosuke felt his face get hot.

“H-hey!” he protested, but Souji just shook his head, with a laugh.

“I didn’t mean that in a bad way. It’s endearing,” Souji explained. Yosuke frowned, but Souji continued on. “It took you long enough, but I’m glad you were finally honest with your feelings.”

“What does _that_ mean?” Yosuke asked, frown deepening.

“I had suspected that you felt like this for a long time,” Souji admitted. He blushed, which was super fascinating to Yosuke, to be honest. “I just...couldn’t ever be sure that it wasn’t just wishful thinking.”

“Oh,” Yosuke replied, dumbly. Then the full meaning of what Souji said hit him, and he sucked in a breath of surprise. “ _Oh._ ”

“Yeah,” Souji replied, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, blush spreading a little.

“How...how long have you felt like this?” Yosuke found himself asking. He almost regretted it, but watching Souji’s entire face go red more than convinced him that this conversation was heading in the right direction, after all.

“Uh...it was some time around when...when I fought your Shadow,” Souji admitted, after a long pause. Yosuke’s jaw dropped.

“ _That long_?! But I...I mean, I was so awful to Kanji back then, and you went out with a few of the girls, and I…” Yosuke went silent, staring over at his friend. Souji shrugged.

“Sometimes, you just can’t help how you feel,” he replied. Yosuke nodded, then looked down at their hands and gave a soft sigh.

“Still...for this long? I only knew how I felt for like, a few seconds and I was so afraid it would screw everything up...I can’t imagine feeling like that for years…” he admitted. Souji squeezed his hand again, and he looked up at him.

“That wouldn’t have screwed anything up,” Souji replied. “Even if I didn’t return your feelings, our friendship is stronger than that.” Yosuke blinked over at him, before letting his mouth form a smile.

“Yeah...you’re right. But I’m still glad you feel the same way,” he replied. Souji nodded, then pulled his hand away just in time for the waitress to arrive with their coffee. They drank their coffees and the conversation finally moved on to more mundane topics, like how the train ride had been or where all Souji was going to be taking him around Tokyo. When they left the little cafe they left hand-in-hand, both ready to start on the new adventure that was going to be their lives together.


End file.
